It was a long time before she got up. Taking this opportunity to look at herself, she noted that the cracks on her skin were still present. They did not appear to be as wide as they were before, but it would still take a while before they completely mended. They still throbbed with pain, though not as much as the throbbing from her stump.

I will definitely get that arsehole for this, she swore through gritted teeth.

She would make an effort to remember him, the bastard who had cast aside her suggestion to go their separate ways and did this to her. Captain of the Tiih City Guard he had called himself. The next time they met she was going to make him regret ever messing with her.

Picking up her arm, she cast [Flight] and set off in the direction of Bori and the skeletons. It only took a couple of minutes to catch sight of them. One of the skeletons was still carrying Bori as they fled at a speed a normal person would be unable to match. The geezer had still not woken up yet.

With a sigh she ordered the skeletons to stop. Then she landed and walked over to the skeleton that was free, grabbed it by the head and cast [Dark Drain].

This was a 4th Order necromancy spell that drained the unlife of undead to heal the caster. It was completely useless against the living, which did not provide much chance to use it. Despite this, Sage learned this spell because it was the only one she could use to heal herself under the 7th Order.

As the spell took effect the cracks on her body disappeared and appeared on the skeleton. Then it crumbled and turned to dust. All of her wounds were healed except for her arm. Only a more powerful undead healing spell could fix that, or she would need to wait for Bori to wake up and ask him to sew it back on.

However… looking at the geezer’s twisted arms he might not be able to do that. That City Guard bastard had really busted him up. Now with his missing leg he might never walk again.

Thinking this, she could not help sigh. If Bori did not recover she would remain without an arm until she reached the 7th Order and found an appropriate spell to heal it. Just thinking about how long that would take caused her animosity towards the Tiih City Guard captain to grow.

“I will definitely get the son of a bitch back,” she vowed.

After thinking this she looked down at the pile of ashes that were once a skeleton. The geezer would definitely be mad when he woke up and found one of his precious Grade 4 skeletons gone. She had already decided to label the Guard Captain as the culprit.

“Let’s go,” she ordered the remaining skeleton.

And so they began to walk in the direction of the tower. Although she was currently in an unfamiliar area, she was able to pinpoint the correct direction through her bond with Nyx. Even if he had decided to explore he was a cat, meaning he would not go far from the tower. By tracing her bond to Nyx and she was likely to end up at the tower.

As for why she had decided to walk instead of flying or using [Dimension Door] it was to recover her mana.

Whatever her blood had done to that bastard, it was only a matter of time before he got rid of it. Then he would come after her and she would have to fight him. She wanted to make sure that when he did he found her in top form.

Well, not that top, she thought, looking at her separated arm dripping black blood.

She made it curl its fingers, form a fist and then flip the middle finger. It obeyed her orders even though it was disconnected from her. It was weird and creeped her out a little. She wanted it connected to her body as soon as possible.

She and the skeleton marched for hours. In that time the sun reached its high point and passed it. Still, the geezer continued to sleep.

Sage and company did not meet many animals during this time; just the occasional black rabbit and other overly large rodents. These critters all fled when they caught sight of them.

Sometimes she caught sight of larger animals like a Grandhog or a wolf, at which point she would take a roundabout path. The last thing she wanted at this moment was conflict with these creatures. After what she had just gone through she was in no mood to catch another Grandhog. As for the wolf, bothering it was stupid idea. Where there was one wolf there were always others nearby. The last thing she needed was to be ganged up on by a pack of them.

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The journey continued and the sun’s altitude lowered drastically. In about an hour or so it would fall behind the mountains. Then darkness would fall and the predators would come out of the wood works. At this point Sage’s mana had fully recovered so she chose to cast a [Dimension Door] to take them closer to the mountains. When they passed through the first one she cast a second one, and then a third.

At this point she had already decided to hell with it and decided to use magic.

As an undead walking might not tire her out, but it was monotonous and boring. The last time she had walked for most of the day she had been in the company of Marcus, Kaylee and gang. Those guys were a talkative bunch, which made it somewhat entertaining. However, at the moment her companions were a skeleton and an old man; one who was unconscious and the other who did not speak.

More than half a day of painful silence she could not take it anymore. So she decided to end the journey as quickly as possible.

Besides, if that bastard was really coming for her he would have done so a long time ago. Either he gave up or there was a limit to his tracking method. Considering the guy’s personality she would wager that it was the latter, which meant she did not have to worry about him finding her anytime soon.

She cast another [Dimension Door] and stepped through.

This time the Door led her to a place with a herd of Trenton Gazelles. Almost all of the creatures scattered when she and the skeleton passed though. However, there were those few who stopped and gave them warning stares, displaying their horns in an intimidating manner.

She ignored them and tried open another Door. However, the stirring of a certain figure on a certain bony shoulder caught her attention.

Finally, the geezer was waking up

“Where are we?” he asked weakly, his drowsy eyes scanning the area.

“No idea,” she replied. “But we’re on our way to the tower.”

“Is that so?” he responded feebly.

His eyes cleared as time passed. When the drowsiness had completely vanished he took this moment to examine her, taking in her condition, particularly her missing arm which was held by her other hand. It was only then that he seemed to remember the things that happened before he passed out.

“What happened to the Guard Captain?” he asked.

“We managed to give him the slip,” she replied. Then, looking at her disembodied arm she continued. “It wasn’t easy for us to do that though. Sacrifices were made, one of the skeletons died.”

“Is that so,” the necromancer replied after a moment of silence. He was clearly upset at the loss but he tried not to make a big deal of it. “Put me down please.”

The skeleton did as it was told, setting the geezer against a tree. Bori looked around and locked onto the Trenton Gazelles, which had gone back to grazing after realising they were not here to cause trouble. Then he turned to Sage.

“Can you do me a favour and kill some of them?” he asked her.

“Why?” she replied puzzled.

To this the necromancer looked at down at his battered body and replied. “I cannot do much in my current state so I need them to heal myself.”

“Oh,” she responded, comprehension dawning to her.

Then she walked up to the deer, some of which raised their heads and gave her the warning looks from before while the others fled. She ignored these threatening gestures and raised her hand to cast [Chain Lightning]. Then black lightning shot out of her palm and struck the closest one. Then it bounced onto the next one and so forth. Within an instant half a dozen of them had dropped to the ground. As for the rest, they fled in mad panic.

Sage, with the help of the skeleton, dragged the carcasses to the geezer who propped himself up into a better sitting position. Then he cast [Raise Mass Dead].

At that moment the carcasses of the Trenton Gazelles lost their colour as their lifeless eyes turned white and they started to get up. Within a minute Sage, Bori and the skeleton were surrounded by a bunch of zombie deer.

The geezer beckoned them to him before putting his hand on the head of one of them before casting [Dark Drain], just like Sage had done earlier. The unlife flowed out of the zombie creature and began to heal him. When the creature was reduced to dust Bori’s limbs were not as twisted as they had been before. By repeating the process five more times his limbs became straight once more, a fact that made Sage rejoice.

Now that his arms were okay he would be able to sew her arm back on.

Unfortunately, his leg was still missing. It did not seem to bother him though. He cast [Flight] and decided to move while just hovering above the ground.

“Let’s get going then,” he said, looking at her.

“After you,” she indicated.

The geezer, getting the message, sighed and opened a Door. Then the two of them passed through, with the skeleton right behind them.

The sight they found on the other side caught them off guard.

There were people present.

A bunch of twenty odd people; they were mostly women in worn-out clothing. However, there were four individuals that stood out. The first Sage noticed was a short girl with fiery red hair, then she saw a huge dark skinned man with huge broadsword and a man wearing white priest robes. Finally she caught sight of a half-elf woman in black leather.

The moment she, Bori and the skeleton passed through they all turned to look at her. Recognition lit up on their faces but it quickly turned to animosity.

“You!” the half-elf snarled at her.

At this moment she could only sigh helplessly.

Ah fuck.